India Inc seeks interest rate cut in upcoming RBI monetary policy review

17 Dec 2013 Evaluate

India Inc has demanded for interest rate cut from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), despite a spurt in inflation to a 14-month high of 7.52 percent in November. The CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee conveyed that rise in inflation should not come in the way of central bank’s accommodative monetary policy announcement on December 18, as it is of utmost importance to strengthen investor sentiments which have been adversely affected by high interest rate. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation during November soared to the highest level since September 2012 mainly on account of high vegetables prices.

Ficci President Naina Lal Kidwai informed that as the mid quarter monetary policy review is due shortly, industry hopes that RBI will give consideration to the fact that the demand situation has not yet improved with IIP data released last week indicated negative growth in October 2013. Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat indicated that increase in WPI inflation before RBI's monetary policy review is certainly a big dampener for India’s macro picture. Meanwhile, inflation has largely come from a steep rise in prices of food articles, particularly fruits and vegetables due to supply side constraints, therefore, the RBI should cut interest rates to boost industrial growth and demand.

Rising inflation in the country has become a concern for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has kept "tackling inflation" as a top agenda and has been continually raising the policy rates over the past few months in order to trim the inflation. However, in a big disappointment to RBI, WPI inflation in the month of November not only stayed above the central bank’s comfort zone of four to five percent, but also soared to the highest level since September 2012 when it was 8.1 percent.

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